Orhan Pamuk - The Innocence of Objects

During the period, if a man who had slept with a girl under the age of eighteen and was trying to wriggle his way out of marrying her, an angry father may have taken him to court. Some such cases would attract press attention, and in those days it was custom for newspapers to run the photographs with black bands over the “violated” girls’ eyes, to spare their identity being exposed in this shameful situation.
It was custom for the press to use the same practice to be used for adulteresses, rape victims and prostitutes. Very few Turkish women appeared without brands over their eyes, unless they were singers, actresses, or beauty contestants (all occupations suggestive of easy virtue, anyway) apart from evidently foreign and non-Muslim women.Picture: Abrams Books